Council’s new GOPers are strife of the party

There’s bad blood coming to the City Council.

Although Republicans in the chamber have expanded their conference to five members, two of their newly elected are mortal enemies, sources say.

Councilwomen-elect Joann Ariola (near right), 63, of Ozone Park, and Vickie Paladino (far right), 67, of Flushing, have been butting heads in Queens for years in a feud that has long divided the borough party, insiders say.

“Right now, I would . . . be a little concerned about their immediate relationship,” said state Conservative Party Chair Gerard Kassar. “Everything I hear is that they are oil and vinegar. They really do have a problem getting along at the moment.”

The beef stems from 2018, when Paladino, a small-business owner, sought the GOP nomination for a state Senate seat in northern Queens.

She styled herself as an insurgent candidate and was something of a folk hero in Whitestone after going viral for screaming at Mayor de Blasio during a press conference. But the party, led by Ariola, a former court stenographer, was less enthusiastic and backed Paladino’s primary opponent, Simon Minching, an exec at Palantir Technologies. Things got nasty. “I think that Vickie Paladino is a radical who is very much what we don’t want our party to be affiliated with,” Ariola told the Queens Chronicle in August 2018.

“Vickie Paladino represents everything that we are not,” she told QNS.

Paladino returned the favor by delivering a scalding rebuke at a meeting with Ariola and Queens Republican leadership just before the primary vote in September 2018.

“We didn’t need to hear from the underbelly of the corrupt GOP,” she said. “I have been assassinated by the Queens GOP, but I got news for you . . . you’re going to be very sorry.”

The tirade sparked a brawl, and the cops had to be called. Paladino proudly posted a video of the altercation to her Facebook page.

Paladino won the primary but lost the election to Democrat John Liu.

The dynamic played out again in her 2021 City Council race, with Ariola and the Queens establishment backing another primary candidate, John-Alexander Sakelos, whom Paladino dispatched. She then beat Democrat Tony Avella in the November election.

“For too long our party has nominated the wrong kinds of candidates, party insiders and amateurs who are not ready for prime time,” Paladino had said in a primary ad over an image of Ariola.

In her own council race, Ariola beat Democrat Felicia Singh to replace her GOP ally, Eric Ulrich.

Last week, the women played nice, lunching on Wednesday at The Capital Grille in Midtown.

“We had a chance to talk to each other privately and openly . . . and we are all . . . feeling that we need get this city what it needs,” Ariola told The Post.

Paladino told The Post that they had a “productive conversation” and it was “long past time for us to move forward and work together.”